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Over a Dozen Superheroes You Didn't Know Were Vegetarian

When I became a vegetarian four years ago, I started looking into which cool people throughout history were vegetarians too. That list was bigger than I expected and easy to compile, but completely irrelevant to the real important question in life… Which is, what are superheroes eating??

From Leonardo DaVinci, Nikola Tesla, Ghandi, Mary Shelley, and Albert Einstein, there was no shortage of real-life, brilliant vegetarians who made me feel like I was part of some brilliant cool club to no longer be feasting on flesh. But living in the fantasy world that I do, I was curious as to which fictional characters did writers (sometimes controversially) decide to create or convert to a plant-based diet?

I needed to know for a few reasons. One of these reasons is for retaliation when people make fun of me. I wanted to be able to say something like "Oh yeah?! Well, BATMAN is a vegetarian too, and Batman is the best in the world, so shut your meat hole!"

Unfortunately, Batman isn't a vegetarian. Although, I did discover that Christian Bale is. He of course became my new argument when people make the assumption that you can't get enough protein or buff without meat. I'm going to carry around a picture of Bale from Batman Begins in my wallet. Particularly the scene where he is reading the newspaper shirtless as he gets out of bed. He looks like he can't breathe because his muscles are in the way.

There were a few obvious characters I knew were vegetarian, but during my superhero diet research, I did find much more than I originally thought I would.

1. Garfield Logan AKA Beast Boy
Beast Boy is a vegan who loves tofu. He gets uncomfortable going into burger joints, and brings his own food with him when he goes out. Makes sense, considering his ability. How could he want to eat a creature that he himself has turned into and has become aware of on a profound level? There are times when writers and artists go against this, and put a regular slice of cheesy pizza in Garfields hand.

2. Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman
Being the King of Atlantis, and spending most of his time in the sea, he eats things that you would imagine a mer-person would eat. Fish, crustaceans, seaweed and such.

Someone who doesn't eat land animals, but eats fish and other sea life are usually called pesce-vegetarians. While some may say it's weird that Aquaman would eat the fishy friends that he talks to, according to Arthur, he doesn't actually talk to fish since they are so primitive, he just telepathically nudges them as needed.

(Like all vegetarians, Arthur deals with the same bullshit questions and comments every day)

3. Kitty Pryde AKA Shadow Cat
While I was unable to find any comic pages to confirm Kitty's plant based diet, marvel wikia has her listed as a vegetarian. Kitty Pryde has always been a good natured person who loves animals, including her dragon Lockheed. I could easily see her being a vegetarian.

4. Pieter Cross AKA Doctor Mid-Nite
It's no surprise that a Doctor is health-conscious. Not only is he a vegetarian who refrains from meat, but also tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical medicine; opting to use a holistic approach instead. Likely, he practices this thanks to the father of all medicine, Hippocrates who said "Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food". In addition, Cross also practices Yoga and enjoys ginger tea.

5. Greg Rucka's Wonder Woman
When Rucka made Diana a vegetarian, many fans complained. To them, it didn't make sense that an Amazon WARRIOR wouldn't eat meat. I believe this is because the idea of a warrior is associated with masculine traits, and people tend to think that there's nothing more manly and masculinity reassuring than eating meat, of course.

Is it impossible that a woman who has been ruthless towards man be incapable of showing compassion towards beast? Diana has always had passion and compassion. She is a strong woman faithful to her convictions. While she could crush your puny head in her thighs, The Princess of Themascryria maintains her femininity, and femininity and nature have always gone hand in hand.

Plus, Dude, think about it... She was raised on an island full of vegetation by a race of immortal women sworn to peace and equality. Just seems to make sense that they'd would eat off the fruits of the land, and not harm animals. Not that I cant see it happening in some form. For instance maybe they might spill animal blood for sacrifice to the Gods and/or eaten for ritual or special celebration purposes.

Otherwise, when there is vegetation in abundance and no one wants for anything, why take a life just to satisfy some craving? The amazons live peacefully with their environment taking only what is needed.

6. J'onn J'onzz AKA Martian Manhunter
While its not certain if J'onn even NEEDS to eat Earth food to survive, he LOVES Chocos, a cream filled chocolate cookie much like Oreos. While living on cookies technically makes him the vegetarian he is listed as being in his wikia, I'd like to find more information on his diet. As dedicated as J'onn is to helping Earth people, it makes sense if that dedication extends towards other Earth species as well.

You don't just show up on a planet and decide which species is acceptable to eat. That's kinda rude. I know if I landed on J'onzz's Planet back in the day, I would feel uncomfortable eating some random animal. After all, its still a freaky alien species.

The Smallville version of Martian Manhunter kept with the comics and was mentioned to be a vegetarian. With Manhunter appearing on Supergirl, I wonder if they will bring up his diet again.

7. Pamela Isley AKA Poison Ivy
Pamela is totally vegan. Being someone who is in tune with the flora and fauna of the Earth, and basically has chlorophyll in her veins, she doesn't have any desire or need to eat animal products. She eats the sun and the abundance of fruits, vegetables and greens that she can grow with her powers with the snap of her fingers.

People might ask how someone who loves plants like she does could eat them. I imagine she has her own cycles with the plants. She grows them, cares for them, listens to them, so the least they could do is feed her.

Pagans and witches give thanks to nature spirits before picking plants and flowers for use in spells. Someone as gracious and appreciative of the plants and the gifts they bring like Ivy is, should have no plants getting mad at her for eating the fruits they bare. They bare the fruit to be eaten.

8. Iron Fist AKA Danny Rand
While I am unsure about his status in the comic book, in the Ultimate Spiderman cartoon series, Iron Fist was a martial art practicing, meditating vegetarian.

9. Animal Man AKA Buddy Baker
When Animal Man was revisited by Grant Morrison in the 80's, Buddy Baker was made a vegan and animal rights activist (Morrison was as well). As Animal Man, he has the ability to temporarily channel the traits of different animals. He can obtain the proportionate strength of an ant, the stealth of a cat, or the hearing of a bat. To connect with an animal he temporarily steps into the web of life and witnesses the connecting threads. Much like Beast Boy, connecting with animals on a deeper plane of existence, doesn't much give you the desire to eat them.

"I realized I could make more of a difference educating people on animal rights, than I could punching out a super-villain, you know? It was kind of a natural progression. An evolution."

10. Mark Waid's Superman
He wasn’t always known to be a vegetarian, but the Superman: Birthright comic book series of 2003 revealed his true love for the vegetable life. The series explains that Superman is profoundly disturbed by the notion of taking life, and for that reason he doesn’t eat meat.

Superman has Electro-magnetic Spectrum Vision and can see well into most of the EM Spectrum. He can see and identify radio/television and all broadcast/transmitted frequencies allowing him to avoid detection through radar or satellite monitoring methods.

(Dont worry Superman, I've repeated to my family over a hundred times that I'm a vegetarian too)

Superman can see the aura that every living thing generates. This ability is apparently one of the main reasons that Superman is a vegetarian, as he can see the life force of living things, and how we are all made up of the same things in the end. Superman has seen the passing of the soul at death, and recognizes the similarities. In the comic above though, he talks about auras like he is the only one who can see them, but he can easily go and get a book on auras, and the colors are broken down into meaning for him. Aura reading is a real life thing, Superman, get with the program.

11. Magneto AKA Erik Lensherr
Magneto being a vegetarian or vegan seems pretty logical to me. Magneto feels that mutants (and himself in general) are superior to humans. Humans to him are ants. Also stubborn, not living sustainable, harming each other, and other dumb things that people do. Makes sense for him want to be on a higher consciousness than the average human, as were many famous vegetarians throughout history.

12. Damian Wayne AKA Robin
Actually, Damian was vegetarian for one issue. Batman and Alfred were not very supportive of Damian's decision. Parents, if your child says they want to go vegetarian, don't just serve him a dry salad while the rest of the family sits around eating steak and sneering. Alfred could have totally made a bangin' vegetarian meal for this child. If after a while Damian decided he was struggling with his decision, then that's on him, but it should not be because his guardians were unsupportive dickheads.

oTHER VEGETARIANS

Neal Shaara, Thunderbird

Nicki Jones, Jade was a graphic arts student from the San Francisco Art Institute. With help from her grandmother, she was able to enroll in Lex Luthor's Everyman Project.

Karolina Dean, Lucy in the Sky from The Runaways

Swamp Thing. Vegan by default I suppose. He self sustains himself on algae, water and energy from the Green?

Matter-Eater Lad. I mean... he has to be, right?

Vegetarian SUPERHERO ACTORS

You might also be surprised to know which celebs who play superheroes are vegetarian.

Tobey McGuire got buff for the Spiderman movies on his vegetarian diet.

Sir Ian McKellen who played Magneto has been a vegetarian for a long while.

Christian Bale was beefy without the beef for Batman.

Hugh Jackman got his Weapon X body on his vegetarian diet.

Ann Hathaway follows a mostly vegan diet. Shes one of those cheese cheaters, but was more strict on herself when getting ready to play Catwoman.

Alicia Silverstone, or Batgirl, has been vegan for quite a while, and has a vegan blog The Kind Life. Shes basically a vegan Oracle.